


should we run away?

by ersteliebe



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Adventure, Alcohol, Beomgyu is a witch, Bickering, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Kai lowkey has a crush on Soobin but don't tell anybody, M/M, Romance, Swearing, You have to squint, all of them have a lil tiny bit of angst in them, i accidentally made taehyun a lil mean..., slightly suggestive at one point
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28384197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ersteliebe/pseuds/ersteliebe
Summary: Soobin & Yeonjun both get a letter saying that they inherited an RV. Except only one of them actually did.They have no other choice than to work together to try to find out who the rightful owner is.Two complete strangers going on an adventure together, that's just a setup for disaster... or is it?“Hm, are you included in this thing? Man, this just keeps getting better. A nice new car and a nice new man.” A chipper voice shook him out of his daydream. A tall man with a mullet stood in the door, one hand on his hip, the other leaning against the doorframe. Sharp eyes looked Soobin up and down, a smug smile on the man’s lips. He wore a long leopard coat, a black shirt and leather pants. He raised an eyebrow as Soobin stared at him, mouth hanging wide open. “Sorry?” Soobin came out of his trance.
Relationships: Choi Beomgyu/Kang Taehyun, Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 9
Kudos: 53





	1. we lost the summer

The rain was pouring down like all hell broke loose. Soobin wiped his damp bangs to the side. In disbelief he checked his phone for the tenth time. There was no mistake, his shift had started already, yet no one was here. The little bookstore was completely empty, not a customer, not an employee, all lights were out. Again, he checked his phone… no, it was definitely Friday, a regular workday… so what was going on? Seeing no other option, he decided to call his boss. The answering machine picked up. “Hello Sir, Choi Soobin speaking. I showed up to my shift but no one is here… The store is locked and the person that was supposed do the morning shift today isn’t here either. Um… please call me back.” Soaking wet, he put his hands against the glass and tried looking for the little cat that usually slept on the counter and welcomed the customer with a little purr, but she was nowhere to be seen. That was kind of relieving she would have been so hungry and scared all alone in the dark.

He ordered a tea in the coffee shop opposite of the book store, sat by the big window, checked his phone for any unanswered calls or texts every 45 seconds and blankly stared outside. The flowers needed to be watered; his boss ordered a book that was supposed to be delivered today and his favorite author recently published a new series that should arrive in the evening to be displayed tomorrow. Especially on a gloomy day like this they would usually have a lot of customers pouring in, seeking shelter and eventually deciding to go ahead and look through the store to keep their minds busy while waiting for the rain to stop. Really, there were a lot of things to do, so why did everyone decide to take a day off without telling him? This had never happened before in the 6 months he had worked there, was this day special in some way? Was it a holiday? Why would every other shop be open then? He was so lost in thought that he only started drinking his tea when it was already starting to get cold. 

After an hour of waiting, nervously shaking his feet and questioning whether he had actually ever worked at the bookstore or if it was all just imagination, Soobin decided to go home. His phone was low on battery and at this point it was very unlikely that somebody would suddenly show up and explain everything. He didn’t love working, I mean, who did? But he did very much need the money this job made him. He was currently studying psychology in university. He had a month until the new semester started and wanted to use as much time as he could to earn money to be able to finally to move out and live on his own.  
“Soobin…” His mom welcomed him with a worried look. “Come in.”

She handed him a towel and slowly guided him to sit on the couch. “Mr Kim had a golf playing accident, apparently he broke his hip. He’s in a fine condition, he can talk and joke like always, but he definitely can’t move and his wife decided to stay by his side for now. So the store will be closed indefinitely, his wife called me just now, she was sniffling a lot, it must be really hard on her. But as far as I can tell he’ll be fine.”  
This whole situation sucked. Obviously it sucked the most for poor Mr Kim, breaking your hip really isn’t fun, but playing golf at 67 also isn’t the smartest move. This also meant that Soobin would have to find another job at least until Mr Kim was well enough to return to work, but Soobin was fairly certain that an old man like him would take a year or more to recover from that kind of injury. So now he was back to square one. There was absolutely nothing to do besides applying for part-time jobs at countless cafés, bars and convenient stores and hoping that at least one of them wasn’t already flooded with thousands of students that wanted to up their allowance a little bit. Even his best (and to be honest only) friend Kai was busy these days, which was surprising because he was known as someone that went out of his way to work as little as possible. However, this year he made the grand decision to go travel the world to rediscover himself and find the meaning of life. So for that he started attending cooking and survival classes (Soobin highly doubted that Kai would ever visit a country in which he didn’t have immediate access to food and the internet, but oh well won’t hurt him to learn how to cook or how to turn your pee into drinking water, right?) and obviously worked any job he could find to save up money for his traveling expenses. Soobin did encourage him on fulfilling his dream and he was proud to see his friend work so hard for it, but it was also really lonely to spend every day without him. Every other day Soobin would visit him in the evening, when both of their shifts had ended, but Kai usually fell asleep after an hour or two, too exhausted to entertain his friend.

Now Soobin spent a lot of time roaming through parks, feeding stray cats and checking his mails for any job offers. “Thank you so much for your application. We really appreciate you taking interest in us and applying for a job. But…” Soobin let his shoulders fall hopelessly. They always make it sound so promising in the beginning only to hit you with the sad truth. “I don’t know why you’re stressing out so much. You can stay here for a while. You can live with us until you’re 50 if you want to.” His mom gave him a happy smile.  
“The goal is actually to absolutely prevent that from happening.” 

Soobin let out a little laugh. He really loved his family and he appreciated the amount of support his parents gave him, but he did feel like he was relying on them too much. All his life he was carried through any hardships and troubles by his parents, it was time to finally face the real world and start working on paying them back for all the hard work. “By the way sweetie, there is this really important looking letter that came for you in the mail. I put it on the kitchen table, you should probably open it.” Soobin shot up from his bed. That might be a job offer, finally some good news.

Dear Mr Choi Soobin,

We are so sorry for the loss of your grandmother, Mrs Choi Jangmi.  
We’re writing you to inform you that you have inherited a Chevy Sportscoach RV.  
Please call us as soon as possible for further details.

…Huh? What? Who? This must be a mistake.  
“Oh my god, dude, that’s so cool?!” Kai shot up from his bed, eyes opened wide. “Imagine living in an RV that sounds like the best life ever.” Soobin bit his lip. “I don’t know… I feel like I’m getting scammed. I’ve never seen my grandma to be honest I don’t know why she would inherit something expensive like this to me.” Kai crossed his arms. “How would you get scammed? They just want you to come pick it up, right? You don’t have to pay anything. Really, aren’t there only advantages? If you don’t want it, you can just sell the thing. You know what?” Kai began to beam. “Maybe you could travel together with me in the first week or so, I do plan on visiting all the hotspots in Korea first. We could do that together and then I get on the plane to Japan and you can either continue traveling through Korea or you just drive home. Also, didn’t you want to move out anyways? Why not try living in the RV for a few months? It’s summer, so the temperature should be fine.” Soobin took a long look at his friend. Damn he was good at changing his mind. “Alright, I’ll at least go look at the damn thing. I probably can refuse if it feels fishy, right?”

It was a sunny Monday afternoon. Soobin dug his shoes into the gravel and nervously played with the letter he held in his hand. The sun was blinding him and he had to squint to be able to inspect the large campsite in front of him. He really should have taken Kai with him, he thought as he suddenly started to feel a wave of nervousness crash over him. He wasn’t good with opening up to new people already, but meeting someone he had never seen before suddenly felt really unsafe and like a dumb idea. But here he was, leaning his weight from one foot to the other, eyes shifting from left to right, waiting for someone to talk to him first.  
A loud bang made Soobin flinch and take a step back. The small, blue trailer to the left side of the campsite opened and an old, heavy man walked out. With big, loud steps he walked towards Soobin, who was just about to turn and run for it. The man huffed, Soobin noticed he was limping, his anxiety dissolved as he saw the friendly grin on the man’s face. “Hello, are you possibly Choi…”  
“Choi Soobin, yeah that’s me.” Soobin bowed politely and smiled back. “The name’s Park Junghoon. Well, let’s get straight to the case.” He fumbled in his left rear pocket, taking out a fresh handkerchief, some paperclips and finally a big key. “There you go.” He carefully placed the key in Soobins hands and gestured for him to follow.  
And there it was.

A huge 1972 Chevy Sportscoach RV, white with a thick green line across it. It was bulky and oddly shaped in the front, the white paint starting to look yellow, chipping off at the corners, the doorknob rusty and cold. “Well, why don’t you take a look inside? I’m gonna go fetch some documents, I’ll be right back.”  
The RV smelt slightly musty. Clearly no one had been living in it for years, maybe centuries. The carpet that was spread out inside probably used be white or maybe beige, but now it was completely grey, covered in coffee stains and years’ worth of dust. Somehow it had its’ charm. There was a small kitchen counter with a stove, a sink and even an oven to the left side. On the right side, there was a bathroom with a shower and a toilet. In the back of the van was an old twin-sized bed. “I guess I could work with this.” Soobin whispered and let his fingertips trace the patterns of the wallpaper. He started checking the cabins and found expensive looking dishes, old canned food, a map of Jeju-do, some romance novels and an old brooch.  
His heart became heavy. It felt like he discovered a part of his family’s history that was missing for years. He felt the memories and adventures this RV had gone through. 

The late nights in which Choi Jangmi would lay in bed and lazily flip through a magazine or a book, while her radio would play popular songs. The people she would take with her on her journeys, the people she found or lost along the way. The days she would sit outside and watch the sun set. The stormy days she would cuddle up in bed and bury her head under the covers, just like he usually did. He began to smile. It really felt like he arrived somewhere he truly belonged.  
“Hm, are you included in this thing? Man, this just keeps getting better. A nice new car and a nice new man.” A chipper voice shook him out of his daydream. A tall man with a mullet stood in the door, one hand on his hip, the other leaning against the doorframe. Sharp eyes looked Soobin up and down, a smug smile on the man’s lips. He wore a long leopard coat, a black shirt and leather pants. He raised an eyebrow as Soobin stared at him, mouth hanging wide open. “Sorry?” Soobin came out of his trance.  
“Did you consider buying this car? Sorry, it’s mine now.” 

The man swayed the keys in front of Soobins face, put his hands in his pocket and strutted towards him. “Yup, good, old grandmother died and left it for me. Great right?”  
“There must be some mistake.” Soobin shook his head, showed his own key and stood his ground. He wouldn’t let himself be intimidated by this guy. Sure, he was tall and really handsome, but Soobin was even taller and he had always been confident in his looks. “I actually inherited this. I opened it with this key. You must have confused this with another RV.”  
“Nope.” The man shook his head, put the key in the ignition hole and started the motor, only to shut it off immediately after, satisfied with his demonstration. “This is the right one.”  
“Ah, you met already?” Mr Park called out to them. “So, here’s where the uh… thing starts.” He started scratching the back of his head and looked somewhat embarrassed, avoiding their eyes. “Both of you have the family name Choi, right? And you both have a grandma called Choi Jangmi, right? Well, the thing is… I don’t actually know which one it belonged to. I know that she had a grandson and that he should be in his early 20s right now. She bought this from my dad and to be honest with you, the deal was kind of under the table, you know? Apparently they were friends or something and this car officially still belonged to my dad, so I don’t have an official record of which Choi Jangmi this actually belonged to. It didn’t feel right to keep it to myself since she did pay for it. So, I did my research and came to the conclusion it could be either one of you, since both of your grandmas spent their younger days in this era. Which one of you had a grandma that used to live in an RV?”  
Silence.  
Soobin sighed, this was all way too good to be true anyways. “I’m just gonna be honest. I didn’t know my grandma at all. I don’t really have any way of proving if she ever owned this thing or not.”  
The man next to him furrowed his eyebrows. “Since you’re being honest, I guess I’ll be as well. I last saw my grandma when I was 8. I lived in the U.S. for most of my teenage years and when we returned to Korea, she was already dead. So, basically I don’t know for sure either.” 

“Your parents would know though, right?” Soobin exchanged a glance with the young man, who had lowered his head and was staring at his pointy shoes. For some reason, he looked really nervous and uncomfortable. “Yeah, I guess.” he mumbled, playing with a strand of hair. “Mine wouldn’t know. We should talk with your parents, then we’ll know for sure.” His voice was clear and confident. For some reason, even though he really wanted the car for himself, he also wanted to make the man less anxious. “I can’t today, though. Can we do this some other time?” The old man shrugged his shoulders. “At this point you should handle this between you two. You both have my number, so call me when anything major happens.”  
The two were left alone, still standing in the car opposite from each other. “My name is Choi Soobin by the way.” Soobin tried to clear the thick air between them. “I’m Yeonjun. Choi Yeonjun obviously.” He finally lifted his head to meet Soobins gaze again. “So when will you be able to meet your parents? Are they on vacation right now?” Yeonjun looked away again, pausing for a few seconds. “Are you sure your parents wouldn’t know?” He dodged the question. Soobin nodded “They really wouldn’t know, sorry.”  
“I could talk to them tomorrow, if that’s OK?” Yeonjun sat on the bed and checked his phone. “Yeah, that’s fine. What will we do with the RV in the meantime?” Yeonjun looked up at Soobin. “To be honest, I don’t trust you enough to just leave this car here, knowing you have a key and could disappear with it whenever you wanted to.” Soobin gasped for air. “Do I look like a person that would do that? Now that you mention it, I guess you could potentially do that as well?” Yeonjun let out a chuckle. “Oh no, I told you my secret plan.” It was supposed to sound like a joke but the way Yeonjun glanced to the side and awkwardly laughed made Soobin think that that was probably what he had planned on doing. Soobin sat down on the bed beside Yeonjun forcefully, shoving him to the side a little. “Well, this space is big enough for the both of us, right? We could both stay in here for the night, that way nobody has the opportunity to suddenly drive away with it.” He smiled innocently and patted Yeonjun’s shoulder. 

They agreed on driving to Soobins place to get some fresh bed sheets and blankets, vacuum and get rid of the dust a bit. His Mom stood wide eyed as Soobin and his pink haired new ‘friend’ rummaged through her basement for some camping chairs and a small table. “You boys want some snacks? Should I pack todays’ dinner in some Tupperware for you to eat?” “No, that’s fine.” Soobin said, only to receive a smack by Yeonjun. “That would be lovely.”  
“You two are already this close? That’s sweet maybe you two should share the car.” Yeonjun and Soobins Mom laughed, Yeonjun not really sounding all that sincere while doing it.  
They decided to park on a hill with a nice view over Seoul to make the best out of this uncomfortable situation. Soobin let Yeonjun drive since he wasn’t really the greatest driver out there and the big, old massive thing combined with the busy traffic of the city scared him, to be honest, but he didn’t tell Yeonjun that, he didn’t want to fuel his ego.  
As the night came and the sun started to disappear, the two sat in the camping chairs they brought, quietly munching on their dinner, almost looking like old friends.

“Wanna play 20 questions?” Yeonjun asked before shoving a huge bite of Tteobokki in his mouth. “How old are you, twelve?”  
“I guess that was your first question then.” He wiped his cheeks. “I’m actually 21. How old are you?”  
“So we’re really doing this? I’m 20.” Soobin bit his lips, slightly embarrassed by how disrespectful he had talked to Yeonjun, unaware that he was his elder. “Yeah we are really doing this! Wow, you’re really wasting your questions here, you know. Do you have siblings?” Yeonjun opened a bottle of Soju.  
“Yeah. Two older brothers and one older sister. And you?” Soobin slid his glass over the table, quietly asking for a shot as well.  
“Nope, I’m an only child. Why don’t you and your family know your grandmother, like at all?” Ah, here we go, Soobin thought and snorted. After staying quiet for a while Yeonjun asked again. “Did you guys fight or something? Did your parents run away from home and decided to never look back?” Soobin took a shot of Soju, then another one and another one. He sighed heavily and placed his glass down.  
“I was adopted.” He looked at Yeonjun for a reaction, but he seemed to be completely unbothered and not surprised at all. “Makes sense, you have a completely different nose and your mom is really tiny.” 

Soobin looked up at the stars while Yeonjun swatted away some mosquitos that started to gather around his food. “My biological mom was really young when she got pregnant with me, like fifteen or sixteen, just like my dad, who decided it would be better to flee to Europe or something instead of taking responsibility. Well sadly my mom didn’t survive childbirth. To say the least her parents couldn’t look at me without thinking of their deceased daughter and I guess they began developing a grudge on me, because I resembled my dad a lot, they were really angry at both of us, like it was our fault. So now here I am, they cut all ties to me, I met my real Mom and Dad when I was three and I’ve been nothing but happy ever since.”  
Soobin ended his story with a warm smile. Yeonjun nodded thoughtfully, processing what he had been told. Soobin waited a little, enjoying the silence he was used to getting after telling his story, before playfully asking “What? You feel bad now? In that case you can just leave the car in my care.” Yeonjun cocked an eyebrow. “Nope, it was your turn to ask a question, I was waiting until you noticed, smart ass.” 

Yeonjun shifted around for the nth time in 10 minutes. Soobin let out an annoyed sigh. “Sorry.” The two men laid back pressed against each other on the small mattress, the rusty bed frame creaking at every small movement. “It’s just… Isn’t this kind of scary?” Yeonjun lifted his head and tried to peek over his shoulder. “What is?”  
“I mean, who knows who has been in this thing before us, right? How many people died in here?” “I think people very rarely die in RV’s, unless they’re in a crash and this one obviously hasn’t been in one yet.”  
Yeonjun hummed. “’Rarely’, so not never, right? You don’t sound very convincing. Think about how many people might have had sex in here with one of our grandmas. They might have died after THAT.” He took a sharp breath. “Well, I guess they would have been young then, but I can only imagine it being a grandma to be honest.”  
“Please stop thinking about grandma-sex while lying next to me.” Soobin deadpanned. “I have to keep myself awake somehow and that topic is really doing the job.” “Why not just sleep?” This time Soobin tried to peek over his shoulder. Yeonjun scoffed. “Who knows what you could do to my beautiful body if I let my guard down.”  
“Not interested, thanks.”  
“Well that’s a little harsh.” Yeonjun sat up in the bed and shook Soobins shoulders forcefully. “Do you normally disrespect your hyungs like that?” Soobin sat up as well. “I was trying to make sure you don’t feel scared around me. You honestly take anything I say as an attack.” Yeonjun slipped his feet over the frame, ducked to the ground, opened the little cool bag they found in Soobins basement and took out a bag of chips and an unopened bottle of soju. Soobin cleared his throat. “What? You want some as well?” Soobin thought that this might be the only thing that could rid him of this uneasiness he felt, so he nodded hesitantly.

Soobin couldn’t control his laughter anymore. Yeonjun was propping himself against the kitchen counter while telling his story about how Pitbull aka Mr Worldwide sent him an E-Mail because he wanted him as a feature on a track for the 5th time. “That definitely wasn’t the real Pitbull. And why would he write to you with his personal E-Mail? His agency would have contacted you.” “You wouldn’t understand! He and I go way back.” Yeonjun slurred. “I first met him at a Walmart in 2013 and we took a selfie and he obviously just never forgot about me. He wrote to me multiple times but I was too shy to answer, you know?”  
“Wait so was this on the same day you met the whole cast of The Walking Dead, or was this on another day?” Soobin teased.

“You don’t believe me? Ugh, you’ve never been to America you don’t know what it’s like.” Yeonjun dismissively shook his finger in Soobins direction. Swaying back and forth Yeonjun started listing all the A-List celebrities that tried to get him to come to their party, told of the times he ran away from the police, the time he found a stash of coke in a public toilet, the time he diffused a bomb. As the stories began getting wilder and his words more incomprehensible Soobin stopped paying too much attention and just laughed at the way he struggled with pronouncing complicated words. Yeonjun hiccupped and started resting his head against a cupboard, slowly becoming quiet. Soobin watched him cool his red, hot cheeks against the cold wood. The moonlight illuminated Yeonjun’s soft figure. Only now Soobin could see the long, muscular legs and the slender, almost tiny waist that were hidden by the long coat before.  
Yeonjun had his eyes pressed together, clearly dizzy, mindlessly nibbling on his bottom lip while grumbling something. His long fingers combed through his hair as he threw his head back, opening a small window and taking a big breath of fresh air. He truly looked ethereal at that moment, like he was sent from another planet to give him a message or a mission of some kind, Soobin thought. He noticed it when he saw the older man for the first time, but now he couldn’t ignore it anymore. He felt incredibly attracted to Choi Yeonjun and he couldn’t do anything about it. While stroking some pink strands out of his face Yeonjun made eye contact with Soobin, who quickly averted his eyes. “See? I told you I have to be careful around you.” Yeonjun whispered and let out a low chuckle. “What are you talking about? You’re the one that has been undressing me with his eyes the whole day.” Is what Soobin wanted to say, but he was scared of what would happen if he did, so he just bit his tongue and took another shot of soju.

Soobin felt a light sting in his head as the sun woke him up the next day. The alcohol from the night before left a bitter taste on his tongue. He groaned, sat up from the bed and let out a surprised yap as he saw Yeonjun curled up on the floor, a pillow pressed against his chest. “Did seriously sleep on the floor? Were you that scared of me?” Soobin yelled and nudged Yeonjun with his foot.  
“No, I just tried getting up a few minutes ago, but fell back asleep.” Soobin touched the space next to him on the bed; it was warm and the sheets were wrinkled, confirming Yeonjun’s claims. “You should get up, you’ll catch a cold. We have to go to your parents in a few hours. I’ll make some coffee.”  
Yeonjun pinched his nose bridge. “Oh yeah, that.” It didn’t feel like they were together to carry out serious business, but now the reality finally dawned on them again. Yeonjun straightened up, excused himself to the toilet to get changed, seemingly wanting to re-establish a more serious atmosphere. Soobin threw on a sweater and his jeans and waited patiently. That’s right, they weren’t friends and after the conversation with Yeonjun’s parents they would finally know who truly owned this car and then after that they would part ways, probably forever. Weirdly, Soobin felt sad about that, even though he barely knew the guy.


	2. drama

The drive to Yeonjun’s parents’ house felt like forever. “Weren’t we here 15 minutes ago?” Soobin asked as he recognized a church they definitely passed at least twice already. “Huh, I guess so. I must have taken a wrong turn.” Yeonjun turned up the radio and bopped his head to the popular tune it played. He seemed a little too relaxed for Soobins liking, but then again, that could happen to anybody, so Soobin decided to let it go for now, he really wasn’t one to talk, he constantly got lost while driving. “I can just go on Google Maps, I have enough data left if you’re struggling with finding the way.” He suggested, already opening the app.  
“What do you mean struggling? The way here is so beautiful I’m just appreciating it by driving around a little for a while, I haven’t been here in such a long time.” Defeated, Soobin put away his phone and just listened to Yeonjun humming along to the music. “Ah, so you mean you took a wrong turn on purpose?” He let out an annoyed sigh but decided to let it go for now. Yeonjun was right after all, this region was particularly beautiful and he rarely ever had the chance to visit it, so he might as well enjoy it. After another two hours of driving they took a break at a gas station. 

They silently sat on a bench, eating some sandwiches the gas station sold, that normally only elderly men would buy, but because the gas station didn’t have anything else they had no choice but to settle for them. Soobin had never liked those sandwiches, they smelled too much like eggs and mayo, but trying to get Yeonjun to properly drive to his parents’ house left him so exhausted and tired that it tasted like the most delicious thing he had ever eaten. They had made some improvements on getting forward, though: Soobin noticed that Yeonjun seemed to avoid one particular neighbourhood, constantly driving around that certain area. Yeonjun also seemed way more nervous than before, his leg shaking while eating, eyes constantly shifting like he was scared that he would meet someone he knew, avoiding eye contact with the people that passed by them.

“So, why are you trying to buy time like this?” Soobin broke the silence after trying to give Yeonjun some time to calm down (which didn’t work, Yeonjun only became more anxious the longer they sat there). Yeonjun stayed silent. “Do you think we could wait another day to meet them? I don’t think I’m ready yet.” Yeonjun’s voice was quiet and shaky, like he was near tears. Soobin examined his face, he looked tired and beaten down for some reason. 

“Fine. Where are we staying tonight?” He let out a big sigh and stood up, wiping away the crumbs on his jeans. He had always had a problem with being too compliant and having too much empathy. Yeonjun’s face immediately lit up. “I’ll surprise you, you’ll like it.” The drive luckily wasn’t that long. They were both sick of driving in the car all day. When they finally arrived Soobin let out a happy yell. “Woah, this is awesome.” He opened the car door and hopped out. Yeonjun had driven them to a beach, which he was clearly very familiar with it. He stomped forward to get near the water, put his hands in his pockets and closed his eyes. The wind tousled his hair as he took a deep breath of the slightly salty air and smiled soberly. Soobin kneeled next to him, his hands gliding through the sand and watching the water get dangerously close to his shoes. “You spend a lot of time here?”  
Yeonjun slowly opened his eyes. “Yeah. Being here always helps calm my nerves a bit. Just staring at the sea makes me stop thinking about the things that are going wrong in my life. Makes me think it all isn’t actually that bad.” He smiled down at Soobin and ruffled his hair for a second. “You look a little like a dog down there.”  
Soobin buried his face in his knees. For some reason his cheeks and ears were starting to get really hot. “I’m hungry.”  
“We can get some really good street food around here, let’s go.”

Soobin felt really weird seeing Yeonjun properly act like a hyung to him. He didn’t tease him like the day before; he properly looked him in the face, guided him through the busy streets by taking his hand every now and then. “You in the mood for fishcake? My treat!” Yeonjun put his arm around Soobin’s shoulder and pointed to a food cart. Soobin nodded; kind of startled and stiff because of all the skin ship he was receiving. He figured it was probably because he had complied with Yeonjun’s request to give him more time before meeting his parents, so this was his way to thank him: by showing him some good old affection and feeding him properly. As he sat on a little bench, letting Yeonjun spoon feed him some noodles he couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to genuinely be close to Yeonjun. Would he act like this every time they met?

After they ate as much as their stomachs could handle they decided to go on a little walk by the beach to digest the food. They took off their shoes to feel the soft sand between their toes and kept their eyes on the horizon, watching the sun slowly set. “We haven’t finished our question game from last time.” Soobin walked behind Yeonjun, peeling his eyes away from the sky and instead inspected his broad back and the way the wind made his shirt hug his figure. Yeonjun kept walking, folding his hands on his back. “Go ahead, then.”

Soobin cleared his throat, thinking for a minute, not sure how to put his question into words. “Are you on bad terms with your parents?” Soobin immediately regretted the way he phrased it. Yeonjun let out an amused snort. “You must be some kind of detective.” He joked and took a quick look at the younger boy behind him. 

“Yeah, we’re kind of going through a rough patch these days. I haven’t seen them in a while.” His voice turned serious for a second, he turned away and came to a stop.  
“Why?” Soobin wanted to know what kind of expression Yeonjun was making, but by the way his hands started to form into tight fists he could tell it was a really sensitive topic. One that Yeonjun didn’t want to talk about. And who could blame him? The two barely knew each other, they were far from close enough to talk about private stuff like this, heck – you couldn’t even call them friends yet.

Soobin suddenly got scared, he didn’t mean to upset him or make him think of painful things. “It’s not your turn anymore, dude. I’m the one that gets to ask a question now.” Yeonjun grinned and turned back around, relaxing his hands. Soobin sighed quietly. Good, he didn’t upset him too much.

“You wanna dye your hair? I’m really good at that, it won’t look patchy at all. There is a 7/11 around the corner, they have a bunch of colours there, let’s go right now.” Before Soobin could even answer Yeonjun already started jumping through the sand to the store he had mentioned. Reluctantly Soobin followed him “I’m gonna puke if you don’t slow down. I can feel all the food shaking in my stomach.” 

He wasn’t really into the idea of colouring his hair, he liked to keep it healthy and simple. The way he unconsciously started to rub his belly, to ease the pain a little bit, made him think of Kai and how he would encourage Soobin to just try it out at least once and if it didn’t look good, he could just dye black over it. Kai would certainly love seeing him with a crazy hair colour. “Fuck it, fine.” He muttered and picked up his speed to catch up to Yeonjun. 

Soobin didn’t really have much of a choice while shopping, he just watched Yeonjun go through the shelf with a really serious look on his face, seemingly randomly just grabbing whatever he felt like. “I’m buying so I get to decide.” Yeonjun reasoned. “I didn’t ask you to, though. You don’t have to.” Soobin tried to stop him, but he was already at the counter, happily handing the cashier the money.

One thing they didn’t consider was that the old RV didn’t have any running water, which should have been obvious from the start, but none of this made sense anyways, so Soobin wasn’t even all that embarrassed to return to the 7/11 with a thick coat of blue hair dye and an old plastic bag Yeonjun had put on his head to avoid making a mess, to buy some bottles of water to wash it out again.

“So I have to go blue and you go black? How is that fair?” Soobin stared in the little bathroom mirror, fascinated by how much the blue actually fit his skin tone. He had to admit: it looked kind of cool. Yeonjun sat in the shower, pouring the water bottle over his head and hastily combing through his hair and trying to get the excess dye off his scalp. “Quit complaining, if I could I would trade with you. But if I’m seriously gonna talk to my parents, I’m gonna have to look like what they consider a good, respectable Korean citizen.”

When he got done he looked in the mirror for a while with a blank stare. “It looks good on you.” Soobin said quietly and scratched his neck. He could tell Yeonjun used his hair as a form of self-expression and somehow he felt as if he had just taken that from him, even though Yeonjun himself had made the decision and Soobin wasn’t at fault for his parent’s views.  
“The black kind of has a bluish cast in this light.” He tried to cheer him up. Yeonjun bit his bottom lip and started playing with his bangs, trying to ruffle them up a bit. “I think I saw some scissors in the cabinet. Can you give me a trim?” 

Awkwardly Soobin combed through Yeonjun’s hair. It was surprisingly soft for the amount of bleach it had probably went through. “Try to keep the hair structure, I just want it a little shorter and um… I guess more put together? Just don’t make it boring.” Soobin swallowed and began carefully snipping millimetre for millimetre. “Will you relax a little? There’s no need to be nervous, no matter how much you mess up, my face will make up for it.”  
“Don’t test me, if you say it like that it makes me want to mess up on purpose just to prove you wrong.” Yeonjun laughed at Soobin’s snarky comeback and patted his knee soothingly. It turned out fine, Soobin had really steady hands and had cut Kai’s hair a few times before, so he was actually pretty confident in his skills. Sadly, it didn’t have the same spunk from before anymore and the scissors were kind of dull, so Yeonjun’s ends looked a little split, but with Yeonjun’s personality and style, they decided to act like that was on purpose. Yeonjun looked in the mirror again, happy with the result.

His face was more relaxed and the tension that Soobin had noticed in his shoulders the whole day seemed to wash away. He let out a satisfied sigh. “Thanks for doing this for me. By the way, you look really hot in blue.” He flicked Soobin’s forehead lightly and scrunched his nose approvingly after taking a good long look at the boy. “Ah… Thanks.” Soobin rubbed the spot, even though it didn’t hurt, and lowered his gaze, feeling his ears heat up again. ‘Damn, why does this keep happening?’ Soobin thought and began to clean up the mess they had made to take his mind off of the fact his body kept reacting to every little thing Yeonjun did or said to him.

The old rusty gate opened with a loud creak. Yeonjun huffed disapprovingly, his father wanted to replace this thing since what felt like the dawn of time and he still hadn’t done it. With careful steps he entered the overgrown garden full of blooming bushes and wild flowers. The old house was still exactly like he remembered it from his childhood, which wasn’t that surprising, since it hadn’t been that long since the last time he was here. Even though he had lived here for a large portion of his life he now felt out of place and like a stranger invading someone’s privacy. Even though it was him that drew the big sunflower on the wooden shed, it was him that had begun digging a hole in an effort to convince his parents to buy a pool, which they obviously never did, it was him that had broken the swing that used to hang from the old tree, now only a leftover piece of string hung from it's branches, which had given them a few concerned looks from their neighbours "Is everything alright at home?". Even though he shaped the way this garden looked like today, he felt like he didn't belong there.

For a moment Yeonjun reminisced in the memory of his mom calling him from inside to help with cooking while he and his dad sat on the porch basking in the sun and munching on a watermelon. He shook his head a smiled sadly. That was a scene he would probably never get to experience again.

He slowly approached the front door, index finger hovering over the doorbell. He turned around and saw the younger man sit on the steps of the RV, hands crossed over his chest, giving him a reassuring nod. Yeonjun sighed and picked at the seam of the black vest he had borrowed from Soobin. He didn’t feel like hearing his parent’s comments about how awful animal print looked on him and how he looked like he belonged in the circus. “Fine, let’s get this over with.” He mumbled and finally pressed the bell. Immediately his pulse went up and he had to grab onto the wall to not stumble from the way his head started spinning.

Soobin watched as Yeonjun disappeared into the blue painted house, politely bowing to the person that opened the door. Now it was all up to him. Soobin wondered if it would have been better if he went in there with him, but he already felt like he was sticking his nose up Yeonjun’s business way too much, so this was probably for the better. After half an hour passed he began nervously pacing up and down the small street. He still had the desire to keep the RV for himself and for Yeonjun to come back and say that his grandma didn’t own it, but he also hoped that Yeonjun was safe. He didn’t get the chance to ask Yeonjun about the details of the “rough patch” he had with his parent’s but, in light of how Yeonjun had reacted when he asked him about it the first time, he didn’t have the courage to talk about the topic again.

After another 15 minutes the door opened with a loud bang. Soobin whipped around startled and stared wide eyed as Yeonjun stormed out of the house. “YOU GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW YOUNG MAN.” An older man screamed from the doorway, chest rising and falling heavily. Yeonjun ignored him and unwaveringly walked towards Soobin gesturing for him to get into the car. “Are you okay?” Soobin whispered walking towards him, but Yeonjun wore a stone cold expression and instead of answering just opened the door to the passenger seat and forcefully pushed Soobin into it. “If you leave now, don’t ever show your face to me again.” The man narrowed his eyes warningly. Yeonjun looked at him, face still cold and expressionless. “Don't worry, I won't.” He spat, got into the car and sped off.

Soobin held his breath, nervously looking at Yeonjun’s side profile. He wanted to know what happened but he could practically see the fumes coming out of Yeonjun’s ears, so he bit his tongue and just nervously shifted around in his seat.  
“So, uh… Where are we going?” He asked after a little while of complete silence.  
“Home.” Yeonjun answered curtly.  
Soobin nodded understandingly and began to play with his nails. The sharp tone had intimidated him and he didn’t feel like being in the car with him anymore. “Alright. You’re going way over the speed limit, though, please slow down a little.” Yeonjun cleared his throat. “Yeah, sorry.” this car ride felt even longer than the last one, even though Yeonjun drove properly without taking any turns just to drive into a dead end because ‘he felt like it’ like last time. The air felt tense and full of bad energy and Soobin desperately wanted to get out of there.  
Soobin raised his eyebrows as he noticed that they were driving straight to Soobin’s house.  
Yeonjun turned off the motor and took the key out. He stared down to his hands and stayed quiet. Soobin slowly unbuckled his seatbelt and expectantly looked at him.

“Alright so. I still don’t know if my grandma owned this.” Yeonjun finally said after a good 2 minutes of just playing around with the keys in his hands. Soobin let out an annoyed sigh. “We didn’t get to that point. I tried talking about it but they kept screaming over me about other stuff.” Yeonjun looked like he was holding back tears. “Sorry.”

Soobin saw how Yeonjun tried his best to seal away his emotions and how much this day must have messed him up. “I trust you, so I’ll leave this car with you for now.” Yeonjun handed over the keys and finally looked at Soobin. “I need to get to work tomorrow… I have another idea on how we can find out who it belongs to, don’t worry. I’ll have a lot of free time soon, I’ll text you then, OK?” 

Soobin nodded. “You can keep the keys, I have my own anyways.” He handed them back to Yeonjun and patted his back. “Get some rest. No need to hurry.” He smiled at him and finally watched Yeonjun get out the car and strut towards the nearest bus station.


	3. magic island

“And you found this guy where exactly?” Kai furrowed his eyebrows as he pointed at the slightly smaller boy in front of him. “Craigslist! Are you seriously saying you’ve never heard of that?” Yeonjun scoffed and smirked slightly.

Kai had insisted on being there when Soobin told him that Yeonjun had contacted him again, saying they should meet up in a few days. “This guy sounds so awesome! We have to keep him around somehow.” After listening to Soobin recount the last two days Kai seemed to have absolutely fallen in love with this ‘Yeonjun’ character and just had to meet him himself. Soobin wasn’t too sure about letting these two meet, he was afraid Yeonjun would be a bad influence, he was also kind of scared that Yeonjun would take him away from Soobin and be Kai’s new, cooler hyung. 

Kai was right in the assumption that it never got boring to be around him, but it was also extremely stressful and exhausting, Soobin had needed an entire day of rest after arriving back home from the trip. He was nonetheless relieved when he saw Yeonjun’s text message in which he promised he had found a new way to find the real owner between the two. What he didn’t expect was for him to show up with a con-artist.

“I’m a witch, not a con-artist.” The guy with slightly ruffled, thick, black hair and an eyepatch he most likely didn’t actually need stomped his feet to the ground. Yeonjun nodded pleased and wrapped an arm around the boy’s shoulders. “That’s right. This is Beomgyu, surname also Choi by the way so you know we can trust him, and he’s a professional witch.” Beomgyu’s chest swelled up with pride and he nodded enthusiastically.

“How do we know he’s actually good? How is being called ‘Choi’ at all a reasonable source of trust?” Kai crossed his arms and shot a sharp look at Yeonjun. Soobin was so glad he had said yes to Kai’s request to come with him. Usually Kai would go along with just about any joke and was always quick to jump at the opportunity of making new friends, but he was also extremely protective of Soobin and wouldn’t let anybody mess with him on his watch. Yeonjun cleared his throat, kind of taken aback by how serious the goofy looking guy Soobin had brought with him actually was. With the way multiple strands of hair happily swayed with the wind, his soft child-like features, and with how he constantly patted Soobin’s belly in reassurance and used baby talk, Yeonjun thought he would be easy to handle and would basically buy into anything he would tell him. 

“Let me guess, your last name isn’t Choi, huh? Only Choi’s would understand.” He tried, but when he saw how Kai wasn’t even slightly smiling at his joke he pulled the two sceptic boys closer to him and whispered  
“Let’s just give it a try, OK? We won’t get anywhere if we send him back. He might actually be able to bring us some new information, who knows?.” Kai sighed at that and nodded a little, Soobin still wasn’t convinced, though. “Also he drove here all the way from Daegu.” 

Yeonjun quickly added and before the two could react, he turned back to Beomgyu. “Now, little man, show us what you’ve got.” Soobin massaged his forehead, feeling like his veins were about to pop, but he realized that at this point there really was no other choice than to play along.

Beomgyu swept his index finger over the marble kitchen counter. He clicked his tongue disapprovingly and snapped the dust he had collected from his finger into the air. “You could have cleaned at least a little bit.”  
“This way all the flavour of the previous owner is still in here.” Soobin argued, not really in the mood to take the rude boy seriously. “I guess so.” Beomgyu agreed and let his gaze wander over the cabinets, lightly knocking on each of them. “Alright, I’m definitely picking up some sort of energy in here.” Yeonjun slightly shuddered as he heard that. “You actually believe that?” Soobin chuckled and Yeonjun lightly slapped his arm. “You just don’t have the sixth sense like we do.”

“I need 10 candles, a radio and about an hour, then I’ll know.” Beomgyu said after walking in a circle several times, carefully taking off his eyepatch, revealing that his eye was in fact perfectly fine, he just wore some red contact lens that looked like straight from the dollar store.  
“You didn’t even bring your own candles?” Kai examined the almost comically large purple cape Beomgyu was wearing over his black tuxedo. “You had money for a little costume but not enough for your equipment?” Beomgyu warningly inhaled a sharp breath of air. “Bystanders should shut up and not disturb the professionals, didn’t your mom tell you that?”

Luckily, they did manage to find 10 different candles all over Soobin’s house (unused cemetery candles, scented candles of all varieties and some almost burned down tea candles that would never last for an hour but Beomgyu didn’t seem to mind) as well as an old radio. They carefully placed them in a circle around Beomgyu, who was sitting on the floor, trying to find a radio channel that played the exact pitch of white noise he needed. “Well then, we’ll see you in an hour.” Yeonjun said in the doorway, watching Beomgyu dismissively wave him away, already trying to start meditating.

The hour that Beomgyu initially said he needed quickly turned into one and a half, then two and as they approached the third hour the three remaining boys were starting to get impatient. “By the way, how do we know Yeonjun didn’t pay this guy to just say it’s his RV?” Kai whispered in Soobin’s ear, who just shook his head. “Even he wouldn’t do that, have a little trust in the guy.” “How can I? He’s way sketchier than you described him as.” Kai played with the straps of his backpack and looked Yeonjun, who was just returning from a toilet break, up and down. “Didn’t you say you absolutely wanted to meet this guy and that we needed him as our friend forever?” Soobin nudged Kai’s waist gently and smiled at the boys innocent words.

“What are you so stressed about? You’ll ruin your cute little hands if you rub against the rough material like that.” Yeonjun interrupted their discussion and shot a worried look at Kai, taking his hands and lightly massaging his fingertips. “He just said he doesn’t trust you.” Soobin had always loved teasing Kai, the way he would nervously laugh and avoid eye contact whenever someone flirted with him always made Soobin’s heart skip a beat a little, his friend was just way too cute. Yeonjun seemed to recognize what Soobin was up to and immediately joined in. 

“What?! That breaks my heart, Kai. Are you scared I’ll take Soobin away from you? I thought we were all good friends.” He whined as he rubbed his head against Kai’s shoulder. “You call people your friend that quickly? We first met today! Soobin, you seriously need to stay away from this guy, he’ll break your heart for sure.” Yeonjun chuckled along with Soobin as he watched Kai push him away, cheeks turning red.

“I feel like if anyone, you’re the one who’s gonna get his heart broken.” Beomgyu finally stepped outside the RV, his whole face drenched in sweat, not really surprising to anyone, since it was the middle of the summer and the dark magician outfit only attracted the sunlight even more. He had at least abandoned his coat, but he was still sitting against the car, hands on his knees and painfully gasping for air. “And? Who does it belong to?”  
“Will you give me a fucking break? I just worked for three hours, I need something to drink.” Beomgyu said between hard swallows and gasps for air.

After settling into Soobin’s living room, letting the air conditioner refresh them and serving Beomgyu his drink, Soobin’s Mom even brought something to eat for him, everyone gathered around the mysterious man and looked at him expectantly. “So?” Yeonjun began carefully. 

“Listen. Being a witch is hard, it really is.” Beomgyu clearly loved having the undivided attention of everyone on him. “It’s physically and mentally exhausting. Not only that but we struggle to get taken seriously.” Beomgyu shot a quick look at Kai who just raised his eyebrows. “I can’t just tell you what I know. I’ve had several occasions where a customer didn’t like what I told them and refused to pay me for my work. So here’s the deal: 400 000 won and I’ll tell you what I know.” 

“400 000 won?! Are you kidding me?! I can just buy a new car with that kind of money.” Yeonjun jumped from his chair and held Beomgyu by his shoulders. Soobin crossed his arms and swung his leg over the other and smiled at Yeonjun sweetly as if he was saying “I told you so. This guy is a scam.” Yeonjun shook his shoulders repeatedly as if he would magically get a new, more reasonable offer if he just did it hard enough. But Beomgyu’s face remained cold, lips pressed together into thin lines.  
“There is no way we will pay you that kind of money. First of all who says you won’t just take the money and run for it, second of all who says what you’re saying is true and third of all we don’t have that much.” Soobin stated in a serious voice, still deciding to help Yeonjun, even though he did kind of enjoy seeing him in despair like that.

“Well maybe you should have read my post on Craigslist more properly then? Who orders a witch and doesn’t believe in witch craft and the integrity of the witch? What’s the point?” Beomgyu wasn’t faced by Soobin’s tone at all. He surely had had this kind of conversation more than once. Yeonjun pulled out his phone and shoved it into Beomgyu’s face. “Nowhere on this ad does it say that you charge 400 000 won, that kind of sum HAS to be disclosed before you start working. And when I asked you how much it was gonna cost before we got here you literally said ‘We’ll see. It depends.’ I was assuming you were maybe gonna go up to 70 000, I mean you’re a kid, I even would have given you a tip, but 400 000? What kind of ghost or ghoul or whatever did you meet in there to make you think that much money is appropriate?”  
Beomgyu shrugged his shoulders. “Trade secret. 400 000 won or you can find out who this junk truck belongs to in another way.”

“You guys should take that offer, I’m sure there is a way to find out in a much cheaper, maybe even free, way who this belongs to. I mean hell, flip a coin, there are so many possibilities that are just as believable as this guy and free of charge.” Kai patted Soobin’s and Yeonjun’s shoulders and gave them an encouraging smile. “When you say it like that you’re right. I’m not exactly dying to know what kind of pipe dream this guy had after three hours in an overheated car.” Yeonjun suddenly abandoned his trust in his sixth sense, kind of liking the idea of just letting the universe decide their fate. 

Satisfied that they were all on the same page for the first time Soobin agreed with the two boys. “Well then Beomgyu, it was very nice meeting you. I’ll show you the way out. Don’t forget the stuff you left in the car, have a safe trip home!”  
“Ok, ok wait wait.” Beomgyu shot up from the armchair he was sitting in. “Let’s go for 300 000 Won.” He smiled apologetically. “10 000” Kai snapped back. “10?!” Beomgyu looked at him in complete disbelief. “There is no job in the entirety of South Korea that would only pay you 10 000 Won for three hours of work!” He yelled. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Yeonjun shook his index finger knowingly. “I’ve gotten even less in some places. The world is cruel, you know.” Yeonjun seemed to be wallowing in memories, smiling wisely into the distance. 

“Alright fine, 200 000.” Beomgyu let his hands fall to the side. “I like the way this conversation is going, but no way.” Soobin shook his head. This guy was way too easy to convince. “150 000?” Beomgyu pleaded.  
“I guess we could do 15 000 Won since you did sweat your ass off.” Kai suggested. Beomgyu sensed that he was getting nowhere. They were absolutely unwilling to give him the amount he had hoped for. “Listen, I need the money. I really, seriously do. I’m struggling to get through right now. I’m trying to support my family with what I earn with this job. I can prove to you that I’m legit, I can’t go lower than 130 000 Won.” The three other boys were silent, waiting for him to legitimize his claims. With a big sigh Beomgyu fell back into the armchair and swallowed hard. He grabbed the hand nearest to him, which happened to be Kai’s and closed his eyes in concentration.

“You have a really powerful protective spirit that keeps danger away from you. This makes other people have instinctual parental feelings for you, which is good for you because people love being around you and constantly spoil you, but also bad because they often fail to take you seriously. You’re at a point in life in which you are preparing for a new start in an effort to get over something or…” He tilted his head. “Or maybe not something but someone?”  
Kai slightly shifted in his seat, visibly uncomfortable with the situation. “Yeah, it’s definitely a person.” Beomgyu opened his eyes and stared at him, a slight smirk forming on his lips. “I guess this person could even be not too far away from here. I can sense you’re scared but there is no need to be. You know how they are, they wouldn’t leave you behind.” Kai snatched his hand away in an instant and glared at Beomgyu.

“That’s way too general. He just graduated High School, anybody could guess that he’s starting a new chapter in life and has had some crushes that were unreciprocated. Everybody experiences that at least once in their life.” Soobin interjected, clearly not impressed just yet. Yeonjun silently agreed, even he could have said these things, they were basically written on Kai’s forehead after all. Beomgyu took Soobin’s hand wordlessly.

“You feel really out of place no matter where you are, even in your own home, with your own family. You feel like an intruder and an outsider.” He started and Soobin’s body immediately tensed up.  
“You try to seem confident and superior, but you’re really insecure and question everything you do. You also have a weakness for wanting to protect people you like, even when it actively hurts you. You think ‘Oh this is so annoying this has nothing do with me.’ but you immediately start taking action and try to help the other person when you sense danger or discomfort. You have a hard shell that has built up from early childhood trauma that can easily be cracked when you feel even the slightest bit of a connection and when you can feel that the other person genuinely appreciates and likes you, which you may think doesn’t happen that often but most of the time you just don’t notice how much people actually care about you.  
You’re either overly optimistic or overly pessimistic. You depend on people around you to balance that part of you. ” 

Yeonjun swallowed audibly. “Now that sounds like a read.” He voluntarily held out his hand to Beomgyu and stared at him with wide eyes.

Beomgyu didn’t bother to take it, still holding Soobin’s hand, who tried to slide out of the hold, but was stopped by Beomgyu’s strong grip. “I don’t even need your hand to be able to tell you’ve been through some shit.”  
Yeonjun marvelled at the boy. “Let’s hear it then.” He challenged him. “Your spirit has been repeatedly broken, you had to build it up again by yourself every time, making it weak and fragile. You act all unbothered and like you’re fine but you’re slowly crumbling and one incident could shatter the wall you built to protect yourself. There is a spirit that watches over you and you yourself can sometimes feel your connection to it, which makes it stronger and more powerful. It’s actively supporting you by helping you move on and conceal unhappy feelings and thoughts. You don’t dwell on negative things, but they eat you up inside without you even noticing it. You probably suffer from insomnia or something of that manner, your aura seems really worn out and exhausted.” Yeonjun nodded and clapped his hands in awe, really impressed by how accurate Beomgyu’s words had been. 

“You two are really alike.” He pointed his head to Soobin and Yeonjun. “And you should work on self-control a little bit. I feel the way your pulse speeds up when you look at him.” He whispered in Soobin’s direction and finally let go of him. Soobin hoped to God that nobody but him had heard what he just said, quickly pressing his hands against his pulse in an effort to slow it down.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sold.” Yeonjun beamed and rummaged through his pocket for his wallet. “Before you pay me there’s another thing.” Beomgyu stopped him. “I need someone to drive me back home to Daegu. The bus ride is way too expensive, I’ll basically lose 30 percent of what I earned today just from traveling.” Yeonjun nodded enthusiastically in Soobin’s direction. “Sure, it’s not that far, it’ll be a great way for you to finally drive the damn thing once.” Soobin nodded hesitantly. It was true, he hadn’t even sat in the driver’s seat yet. It was just too intimidating. But being forced to finally do it was probably the best way to get over that fear. He could potentially be the owner of the RV after all. He was also fine with paying a struggling boy 65 000 Won for a little magic performance, it did take effort and time after all. It was also probably the way Beomgyu looked at his feet, looking all beaten down and sad, that awakened sympathy and a little bit of affection for him in Soobin.

“Fine. Let’s leave as soon as possible, though. We’ll have to drive back as well, we’ll be on the road for at least 4 hours in total.”


	4. angel or devil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long wait on this chapter, I'm currently studying for my university exams >x<
> 
> i hope you enjoy this chapter!!

A loud rattling noise, the car took a leap forward and came to a halt.  
“Alright, no need to panic. Do it slowly and be gentle when lifting your foot.” Yeonjun said in a calm voice. “And hurry up, god damn it.” Beomgyu clung to the frame of the bed and held on for dear life. They were standing in front of a stoplight that had just turned green again. Soobin stalled the engine for the third time in a row, angry honks from the drivers behind him making him even more nervous and his foot even more shaky.

With sweaty hands Soobin shifted back into first gear and slowly lifted his foot off the gas pedal, and with Yeonjun’s soft affirmations in his ear he finally managed to start the car again, lifting his hand in apology for the other drivers to see, head ducked in shame. 

“No need to apologize. It didn’t take that long, they could have waited a little while.” Yeonjun shook his head. “It’s always disappointing to see people lose all sense of respect as soon as they’re in their car. We can see how you’re reacting, and lip reading isn't that hard when to comes to words like 'asshole' or 'shitbag'.” 

“It didn’t take that long? We were standing there for a good 2 minutes! Even I would have started honking.” Beomgyu yelped in a strained voice, he was clearly stressed by the constant shaking of the car and the way the engine howled, whenever Soobin changed gear too early. “Oh what do you know? You don’t even have your license yet.” 

Yeonjun threw a handkerchief in his direction, turned back to Soobin and continued “You’re doing great. This is a really difficult car. Anyone would have difficulties driving this ancient thing, even I do sometimes.”

Soobin smiled a little in return. He was thankful that Yeonjun was so patient and willing to explain everything to him and essentially be his co-driver, making sure he wouldn’t overlook certain traffic signs, reminding him to stay in the speed limit and giving tips on how to loosen the tension in his legs. But it also hurt his pride immensely, remembering how Yeonjun barely had any problems driving this car the first time they had met, not once ever stalling the engine.

“Why’d we leave the annoying one at home? He’d probably be able to drive better than this fidgety guy.” Beomgyu whined. With ‘the annoying one’ he was clearly referencing Kai, who had declined on coming with them to Daegu, since he still had work in the evening. “Why? You miss him?” Yeonjun teased, but Beomgyu only rolled his eyes. “You clearly don’t.” He snapped back. 

After a good hour of driving, Soobin was finally starting to relax a little. Yeonjun’s advice also started to get less, giving Soobin more confidence in what he was doing. Even Beomgyu had started playing on his phone and stopped screeching at every weird noise the RV made. “Who do you think it is?” Yeonjun asked, staring at the road ahead of him. 

Soobin just shrugged his shoulders, how should he know? “Am I a bad person for hoping it’s me?” Yeonjun whispered, just loud enough for Soobin to hear, who chuckled and shook his head. “No you’re not. I’m hoping for the same for me.” He admitted, glad he could openly talk to Yeonjun about it. “Can’t we get a little hint?” Yeonjun yelled in Beomgyu’s direction, eyes still on the road. “Hell no. You wouldn’t get your groceries before paying, so I’m not telling you what I know until you compensated me properly.”

“You’re such a bore.” Yeonjun let out a long sigh. As they sat there in comfortable silence, Yeonjun sometimes pointing out something, the navigation system giving comments on when to turn, Soobin suddenly started treasuring this moment. Him sitting in a car with essentially two complete strangers, being able to make mistakes in front of them without dying inside and just listening to them humming to the music the radio was playing, would have seemed surreal to him two weeks ago. 

“So do you do this full-time?” Soobin asked Beomgyu. “Yeah. This isn’t even a job for me anymore. It’s a lifestyle.” Beomgyu sat up, enthusiastic to talk about the topic. “And you do what exactly? You contact spirits?” Soobin was still in the dark about what Beomgyu had actually done in the three hours he spent in the RV. “Well, yes you could say it like that. I work together with them. I do readings for people just like you got them, I can see what they should be careful of in the future, I can see the troubles of their pasts. And this works with objects as well, as long as there is a spiritual connection to a human being. With this RV specifically I actually- well, you’ll see when we’re in Daegu. But I do have a definite answer to your question.” He smiled knowingly.

“There’s no way you earn a lot of money with that, right? There aren’t really a lot of people that believe in witch craft anyways. I kind of only hired you as a joke as well.” Yeonjun got nasty stares from both Soobin and Beomgyu for that comment.

“You can think what you want, but I have a lot of loyal customers. Sure, they’re mostly older or mentally unstable people, but I’m happy to be their guidance and help them make peace with certain things. Sometimes getting a sign from a spirit, the universe or whatever you believe in really helps move forward and change for the better.” Beomgyu looked out of the window, watching the fields pass by. The sun had almost set completely, the sky a dark pink. “I also sell potions and powders that stimulate your mind and can make you see things in a different light and help you build a connection to your spiritual side.”

The car got quiet. Soobin’s eyes widened as he realized what Beomgyu just said. “You’re a plug?” Yeonjun asked. “Like… You just straight up sell drugs?” He tried to be casual about it, but Soobin saw the way Yeonjun’s mouth hung open and his eyebrow’s shot up just a second ago. “They’re not drugs!!” Beomgyu shook his arms in front of his face. “They’re not, I swear!” 

“Dude that’s illegal here, you know. Don’t just go around telling people this so casually. If you’re unlucky they will tell the police, who definitely won’t bend just because you told them their future.” Soobin warned the younger boy.

“Listen to me – They’re. Not. Drugs.” Beomgyu insisted. “They’re real magical potions I craft myself. They’re not spiked with anything, they don’t contain anything illegal. I use herbs and roots that are proven to ease anxiety and stress and so on.” He tried to calm them down, but Yeonjun and Soobin still exchanged nervous glances, not too sure what to think. “I’ve already had this conversation with the police, to be honest. They searched my whole house and all my stuff got tested in a lab and later they told me to be careful with my children’s plays, can you believe that?! People just always get the wrong idea when I try to explain it to them.”

“You’re really bad at explaining then.” Soobin started to laugh, starting to believe that the boy was in fact just selling innocent herb mixtures and brews.

When they finally arrived in front of Beomgyu’s house, a surprisingly big but admittedly run down building in the suburbs of Daegu, it was already pitch black outside. Beomgyu cheered as he stepped outside of the RV and began pretending to kiss the ground. “Almost 8 hours in this thing today, finally I’m free!” He wiped away a happy tear. As they approached the front door they saw a silhouette waiting for them, sitting on the steps leading to the door.

“Beomgyu?” A voice asked in a hopeful voice. “Yeah, it’s me.” Beomgyu smiled softly, the expression seemed so kind and earnest that it kind of startled Soobin, he wouldn’t have guessed that Beomgyu had this kind of side to him.  
The silhouette stood up, stormed towards Beomgyu and pulled him into a tight hug. “Taehyun, did you wait here all evening?” Beomgyu asked worriedly and patted his back. Finally in eyesight of Yeonjun and Soobin, the smaller, blonde haired man, with big starry eyes and a face straight of out a fairy tale, let out a relaxed sigh. “Don’t just leave without telling anyone where you are the whole day. I searched for you everywhere, I was just about to call the police.” He scolded Beomgyu.

“Oh, don’t worry. I was in Seoul doing a session. They even drove me home, look. These are Yeonjun and Soobin.”  
Yeonjun came closer to the two boys and stared at them fascinated. “Woah, you’re ridiculously beautiful. These days I seem to just meet one beautiful person after the other.” Taehyun’s big eyes suddenly turned thin and defensive. He put himself in front of Beomgyu, even though he was smaller and even seemed to be younger. “Damn, does everyone have a smaller, younger sidekick besides me?” Yeonjun complained.  
“What kind of weirdos did you meet this time?” Taehyun hissed and furrowed his eyebrows suspiciously. “Weirdos?!” Yeonjun yelped, Soobin laughed a little, he instantly liked the small, feisty boy.

Beomgyu put his arm around Taehyun. “Don’t be offended, guys. This is Taehyun, my boyfriend. He’s very protective of me.” Immediately Taehyun pushed Beomgyu away. “’Boyfriend’, my ass.” He crossed his arms and tsked disapprovingly, looking even angrier than before. “So you just drive to some strangers in Seoul and spend the whole day with them and just hope nothing happens?” He examined every face closely. “Or don’t tell me, something DID happen? This guy is overly flirty and the other hasn’t said anything the entire time. I’ve always been against you doing your witch thing and here we are – if you had just listened to me.” 

“Calm down, nothing happened. I did the session, they paid me and drove me home and now I’m gonna tell them the results. I’m fine.” Beomgyu still had a smile on his face, despite how frantic Taehyun was. Beomgyu finally unlocked the door and invited them all in.

They all gathered in the kitchen, Taehyun brewing some tea for everyone and Yeonjun nervously rocking on his chair. Beomgyu placed two shot glasses in front of the two boys. “One of you is about to get his feelings hurt.” His voice calming and professional, he pointed towards the glasses, prompting them to take the shots. Soobin cringed at the harsh taste of the clear liquid and shivered a little.  
“Alright.” With everyone in the room watching his every move Beomgyu carefully rummaged through his backpack and took out some items. “The original owner of the car is this lady.”

An old, yellowed photograph of a woman in a flowery blouse smiling brightly, sitting in a camping chair sitting at a beach, the RV visible in the back, just way cleaner and colours brighter than now. A glass of water in her hand and her knee crossed over the other, she looks really happy. Beomgyu flipped the photo around. Choi Jangmi, 1985, Jeju-do. 

Soobin stayed silent. Not sure what to say. “I also have this.” Beomgyu said, revealing an old diary. “She wrote a lot in this. Go ahead and look through it.”

Choi Jangmi told of her adventures. The time she picked up a hitchhiker that ended up puking in her lap while driving, the wild deer that had managed to open the car door in the middle of the night and emptied her entire pocket, the mysterious man she had met while going hiking, who kept appearing in her dreams. Her new favorite song, the new dress she bought, the day she found out she was pregnant. She gave birth to a son in 1972 and the father was none other than the mysterious hiking man.  
Now the stories revolved around family adventures, visiting the in-laws in Busan, moving away for better education, trips to Australia, Japan and China, her son the center of every story. The son’s first day of elementary school, the friends he introduced to her, the first time he got scolded by a teacher, finally his middle school days, his first girlfriend.

Here, the entries suddenly stopped. Yeonjun closed the diary with a loud huff. “Well, here we go.” Soobin furrowed his eyebrows. “What do we do with this information? I feel like this brought us nowhere.” 

Yeonjun slapped his back forcefully. “It’s you, dumbass, you’re the owner. This is so clearly your grandma.” Soobin’s jaw dropped.  
“I knew it the moment I saw the photo.” Yeonjun said. “She has your eyes, your dimples. She’s even scrunching her nose like you always do when you’re thinking really hard.” Beomgyu just smiled omnisciently, Taehyun nodded after holding the photograph next to Soobin’s face. Soobin took the photo out of his hand and looked at it again, biting his lip in concentration. The alcohol must have gotten to his head already, because suddenly it started to click. The reason why Jangmi had stopped writing after her son got his first girlfriend in middle school wasn’t that hard to figure out.

That must have been the time his dad got his mom pregnant and decided running away was the best option. Looking at the photo again he began to see how she resembled him. That must have broken her heart. Her son was all she ever talked about. If he had stayed they would have figured out a problem together, for sure. Soobin wondered how she had felt about him. Was she OK with the adoption? Was she even asked? 

“How did you find this?” Yeonjun asked Beomgyu, who smirked and shrugged his shoulders. “He probably turned the whole car upside down. No wonder he took three hours.” Soobin let out a laugh. “We probably would have eventually found this ourselves.” Yeonjun agreed. “No you wouldn’t have!!” Beomgyu gasped outraged. “I found this under the guidance of the spirits. Mere mortals would have never found this. You’re grandma was damn good at hiding, let me tell you. There is no way you could have discovered it.”  
“Where was it then?” Yeonjun asked. Beomgyu puffed his cheeks. “Rude people don’t get insider information from me.”

“That was kind of anticlimactic, wasn’t it?” Soobin watched as Yeonjun threw another log into the fire they had started. “That’s just how life is sometimes.” Yeonjun sat into one of the chairs they had placed around the fire. They had decided to spent the night in the RV, since they both already had alcohol and because they didn’t really trust the old lights of the RV to be bright enough to get them home safely in the dark. “Are you sad?” Soobin asked carefully. It must have been a little disappointing to Yeonjun. Yeonjun looked him in the eyes and smiled earnestly. “A little, but I’ll manage.”

Taehyun and Beomgyu joined them, offering them bowls of ramen they happily accepted. Taehyun revealed that he was currently training to become a professional boxer. “He does underground fights. You won’t believe the amount of money people bet on him. Of course there are always first-timers that bet against him and don’t take him seriously because you know, look at him –“ Taehyun smacked Beomgyu’s thigh, but Beomgyu didn’t even flinch. “But he’s number one in his weight class in the whole district, and I’m willing to bet even in the whole country. He has yet to be defeated.” Soobin smiled. It was endearing to watch Beomgyu boast about Taehyun, who got more flustered with each word. 

“You both have really unreliable sources of income.” Yeonjun smirked. “I like it. That means you’re following your dreams.”

It really wasn’t hard to get Beomgyu to like you. All you had to do was to let him speak about himself or about Taehyun for 20 minutes without interrupting him and you already passed his vibe check. “You know what, since you guys are like part of this family now, I’ll give some samples of my products.”  
“Spoken like a true drug lord.” Soobin was actually kind of excited to see what kind of stuff Beomgyu would show them. First he rubbed their hands with some really strong smelling oil, for spiritual protection apparently, then he made them inhale some scented mist, which was supposed to cleanse their aura and finally he gave them two big bottles of pink liquor. 

“This is a love potion.” Beomgyu grinned. “I made him fall for me with this stuff.” He shot Taehyun a loving gaze, Taehyun just laughed. “No way.” Yeonjun twirled the bottle in his hand, noticing that the pink had little bit of glitter in it. “How is this supposed to work?”  
“You manifest who you want to fall for you by clearing your mind and going at it with positive and pure intentions. ‘This person will fall for me and we will be happy together’. Something like that. You have to drink the whole bottle to make it work, though.” Beomgyu explained. 

Soobin already felt light-headed from all the herbs Beomgyu made him experience so he wasn’t really opposed to the idea of just trying it out. Without any warning he began downing the bottle. It was bitter and hurt his throat, but he finished the bottle with no complaints, setting the empty container on the ground, smacking his lips and immediately feeling the alcohol heating up his body. The three other men stared at him, particularly Yeonjun seemed to be taken aback. Taehyun nodded approvingly and said “That’s how it’s done, guys.”

“Fine I guess I’ll try it too.” Yeonjun downed the bottle in one swift motion and immediately shrieked after swallowing, the three other men bursting into laughter as Yeonjun acted like he was spitting fire out of his throat.

After that everything was a blur for a while. Soobin suddenly found himself leaned closely against Yeonjun, laughing about something he said, though he didn’t really remember what it was. Beomgyu and Taehyun seemed to have already gone back into their house, their chairs missing from where they had stood. Yeonjun sniffled a little and rubbed his head against Soobin’s shoulder, trying to get comfortable. Soobin let him lay his head in his lap.

“Where are you staying these days?” Soobin began carefully massaging Yeonjun’s scalp, twirling his hair and combing it out again. Yeonjun stared into the fire. “I’m couch surfing right now.” He mumbled. “I have a lot of friends that let me stay with them. I’m kind of circling around the same few people, trying to give them some space every now, only to come back in two to three weeks.” Soobin nodded.  
“What do you do exactly?” He suddenly realized he had no clue what Yeonjun’s job actually was. “I’m a dancer. I teach some classes for kids, mostly b-boying and stuff. I actually also have a youtube channel with covers, but it hasn’t really taken off, yet.”

“Makes a lot of sense, you do have a dancers body.” Soobin said without thinking much of it. Yeonjun looked up at him. “What does a dancer’s body look like exactly?” He giggled. “Uhh… you know. Like skinny and lean, but not muscular?” Soobin tried to explain. “And I guess the proportions, like your hip to waist ratio?” Yeonjun laughed. “Didn’t know you knew my body that well.” Soobin’s cheeks turned red. “Kinda hard to not notice that you have a great figure.”

“Right back at ya.” Yeonjun teased, poking into Soobin’s soft stomach. “Was that sarcasm?” Soobin asked, a little upset, but also laughing abashedly. “No. I’ve thought so since the first time I’ve seen you. You’re actually exactly my type. Crazy, huh?” Yeonjun lifted his head, putting both of his hands on Soobin’s thighs to push himself up to face him directly, looking into his eyes with a serious expression.

Soobin’s heart beat so loudly in his chest that he was scared Yeonjun could hear it. His breathing became unsteady and his eyes started to shift nervously. Yeonjun slowly lifted his hand and carefully placed it on his cheek, gently caressing it with his thumb. “You have really soft skin…” He mumbled and let his finger trace over the features of Soobin’s face, drawing small circles on his temples and pinching his cheeks lightly.

Soobin felt Yeonjun’s hot breath fanning over his face, his glazed eyes hypnotizing him, he couldn’t look away anymore. He rested his hands on Yeonjun’s waist, pulling him to sit on his lap. Yeonjun looked down at the younger boy with a warm smile that made Soobin feel like he was going to melt into a puddle. Soobin took all the courage he could gather, closed his eyes and slowly moved his head forward until he felt Yeonjun’s soft, plump lips meet his. 

The kiss was slow and sweet, Soobin could taste a bit of the bitter substance they had drunk before, but he kind of liked the taste on Yeonjun’s lips. He felt Yeonjun’s hands soothingly roam his chest, going up to his neck and staying there, pulling him even deeper into the kiss. Yeonjun let out a satisfied, soft sigh and gently grazed his tongue against Soobin’s, who gasped a little, surprised by the other’s boldness. He got dizzy as he heard Yeonjun making little sounds, gasping for air in between switching positions a little, humming as their lips met again, continuing the kiss. 

Soobin felt himself getting even drunker purely off of the vibe this moment made him feel. The fire crackling, the light smell of smoke mixed with Yeonjun’s natural scent in his nose. The way Yeonjun leaned into every touch and every stroke of Soobin’s hand on his warm back. 

Yeonjun nipped at his bottom lip, gaining more access into Soobin’s mouth, who abruptly had to push him away, sensing that this was slowly spiralling out control, getting too steamy for his liking. He felt his body tense up in places he shouldn’t right now, not when he barely knew Yeonjun and still had so many things to find out about him first.

After breaking the kiss they looked at each other with wide eyes, lips glossy and swollen, breathing heavy and raggedy. They seemed to now suddenly realize what they had just done. Yeonjun awkwardly stood up from Soobin’s lap and wiped at his wet mouth, going inside the RV without another word.

Soobin didn’t know if he should follow or if he should leave him alone, had he made him upset? After 30 seconds, however, the door to the RV creaked open again, Yeonjun sticking his head out, looking kind of embarrassed and meekly asking “You coming?”  
It was Soobin’s turn to smile warmly. They ended the night with Soobin pressing a soft kiss on Yeonjun’s forehead and cuddling him from behind, soon hearing quiet snores.


End file.
